Dash, Dog of War
by BemnalTheFallen
Summary: Dash, picked from birth by a high tech advanced military outpost run by Luna, was shaped into the perfect soldier. After over two decades of combat experience, she's become the greatest dog of war in Luna's army, until Celestia brings in her 'new generation' soldiers, genetically enhanced and supposedly better in every way. What will Dash do when she's cast aside like a relic?
1. Your Dogs are Obsolete

Dash, Dog of War

Rainbow Dash, picked from birth by a high tech advanced military outpost run by Luna, was shaped into the perfect soldier. After over two decades of combat experience, she's become the greatest dog of war in Luna's army, until Celestia brings in her 'new generation' soldiers, genetically enhanced and supposedly better in every way. What will Dash do when she's cast aside like a relic?

Incase you were wondering, this is just a little side project I decided to do one night when watching an old movie called 'soldier' and I'm talking like, VHS type old.

Anywho, this is a pony-tized version of 'soldier' with RD as the main character.

Some notes, all ponies are Earth Ponies for the sake of the story; either get over it or stop reading, the choice is yours.

Also, ponies are anthro i.e. walking on two hooves with humanoid hands and fingers but still retaining pony features, coat, mane, tail, face, eyes, ears, etc.

Rated M for some very gory bits and depictions of graphic warfare.

I do not own mlp fim or Soldier, nor do I have any aphiliations to their creators.

Enjoy.

Chapter One, Your Dogs are Obsolete

-On top and ready for action, can one every truly handle what it takes to be great? To be truly great? Wheather yes or no... remember that there is always another being greater than you- excerpt from _the secret book of Bemnal the Fallen_

year 1996- age zero.

A series of foals cried out within a nursery, many fillies and colts wailed as they sat within the delivery room.

A Lt. carefully examined each one whilst looking down at a chart filled with the foal's health information, checking for any weaknesses or health defults.

Then the Lt. came accross a little cyan filly with the smallest whisps of rainbow collored mane; looking down at the chart, the Lt. read off the health report, *no complications during delivery, no stunted growth, vitals normal, brain development normal, diseases physical: none, diseases mental: none.

The Lt. placed a black plastic card on the glass side of the filly's container, the slide adorned with A1.

A nurse frowned as she looked upon the little filly, knowing that she'd be required to face her parents and lie to their faces, SIDS was the common bullshit story that they often employed.

A few other cards were placed in several other healthy baby's containers as more Lt. cycled through the room.

XXXXX

"A soldeir does not speak unless spoken to by a superior officer" rang out the voice of an automated speaker system.

Age 5, Acedemic Program.

The small cyan filly, five years of age along with several other young fillies and colts stood in military camp outfits side by side in filed lines, the room they stood within was adorned with a cold white metalic grey.

The young ones stood upon a sereis of metalic bleachers over looking two large animal cages connected by a long tunnel cage.

"A soldeir shows no mercy, mercy is weakness, weakness is death." the voice of the automated system rang out coldly yet matter of factly.

Dog barks from starving K-9s rang throughout the room and echoed off the walls from inside one of the cages while in the other cage, sat a wild boar. The boar's squeels sounded out in fear and a pathetic plea for help as the dogs pawed against the walls of the other cage, wanting oh so bad to get a taste of the meat before them.

The little cyan filly's military outfit was adorned with a name tag now. The name read simply, Dash.

The dogs got more and more aggressive as the ponies walked around the cage to open a side exit, allowing them entry through the caged tunnel into the boar's own prison.

The cage was opened an the dogs charged on straight into the boar's conainer, teeth and claws ripped into the pig's flesh, blood splattered onto the glass coverings surrounding the cage.

Dash instinctively turned her head away in a mixture of disgust and fear, but a baton of a nearby guard touched her maw and turned it back, forcing her 5 year old eyes to stare blankly at the carnage unfolding before her as the dogs tore the boar to pieces.

XXXXX

Age 8.

Several of the young 'soon to be' soldiers were filing together bits and pieces of metal tectiles to form a single structure, a simple but effective test of cognative and and problem solving skills.

Dash quickly fitted the pieces into their correct places and before the surrounding guards knew it, she'd solved the puzzle long before anypony else.

An observing scientest looked down at ther sheet, a sheet baring Dash's name, down on the check mark boxes she scribled two lines in the 'excellent' box.

XXXXX

Age Twelve.

The young training fillies and colts were running through an out door desert area nearby the military base, the sun blazed down, their bodies were drenched in sweas as was their grey shirts and black gym shorts.

They'd been running for 7 miles so far. Most of them looked exausted, but at the front of the line, carrying the flag; was Dash. A pure look of determination on the filly's face, Dash led the entire squad through the dirt rodes, over hills and through twists and turns; her body refusing to pause for rest or even give the slightest hint of exaustion, and the whole time her face carried the same blank but hardened eyes from that day in the acemy with the dogs.

That look would never leave her.

Over a ridge, a Lt. used a pair of binoculors to spot the fillies and colts as they dredged through the 12 mile rode, only to spot far off in the distance, a struggling Sunrose.

Sunrose panted and panted as her body shook, her eyes stung with salt filled sweat, her vision blurred as she began to lose sight of Dash and the others far off ahead of her.

The Lt. looked to his subordinate and nodded.

A few minutes pased before a military jeep strolled up behind Sunrose, the filly mentally gulped, she knew this wasn't part of the routine, she knew she must have done something bad...

The exausted filly stopped as the jeep pulled around infront of her, she bent over and threw up from the heat stroke; looking up, she expected perhaps a guard to give her a beating or perhaps a tazer.

But instead, the Lt. himself exited the vehical and pulled out his pistol.

Far ahead, Dash lead the pack of fillies and colts onward, even as a gunshot fired in the distance, her cold empty eyes didn't even flinch.

XXXXX

Age 16

The soldiers were lain down on their bellies wielding black assult rifles in their hands as clay targets and clay bystandards sifted left and right accross the shooting range.

Dash and Twilight lay next to eachother as they took point and obliterated every hostile they caught sight of, being careful to avoid civilians.

Until a new situation presented itself, a civilian slid by and stoped, then a hostile slid in behind her using her as a shield.

Twilight's eyes widened as she quickly pulled her finger away from the trigger, stopping her reflex to eliminate the target.

The soliers gave eachother quick looks as they processed different solutions to the problem, that is, until gunfire rang out through the range.

Twilight snapped her head to the left to see Dash firing her rifle, blowing through the civilian and hostile both.

Still, she carried those hardened war dog eyes.

XXXXX

Year 2013, Age 17, end of training.

Dash along with several other ponies sat along extended benches while officers tattoed codes unto their left cheek.

Dash's left cheek was adorned as such, at the vary top near her eye: DASH

two lines below that: 0 - POS

and below that: 3465

XXXXX

Age 38.

War of the Six Cities.

Dash now stood nearly seven hooves tall, every muscle in her body completely ripped and refined to maximum strength, flexibility, and speed.

The right side of her face carried a long scar stretching from three inches above her right eye and dragged down just to the left of the socket and down to two inches above the jaw line.

Her body was suited up in military fatigues, her arms carying an advanced chain gun armed with two bayonets on the end.

With her were four other soldiers.

They waited until the sound of a bombing dropped upon the land before Dash signiled the forward march, the four of them quickly walked but did not run into the fray of gun fire and screeming.

One of the soldiers behing Dash was hit with a grenade luncher, he went flying back as his torso exploded like a watermellon sending chunks of pony accross the already gorified streets.

Dash walked on calmly almost soulessly as she took aim at anything that moved with only a single short controlled burst got one kill, then two, then three, then four, then five, then six, then seven, any and all enemies that popped up didn't get in a single shot against her as she marched eerilly on into the chaos.

XXXXX

Moscow Incedent.

Dash and several other soldiers swaddled up on arctic military armor charged through the blistering winter as they took down snipers and front line soldiers that hid around the corners or atop buildings.

Bombs exploded around them as Dash's unit fought on towards the checkpoint, along the way, Dash turned to see an enemy soldier with an arm locked around a screeming mare.

Using her as a shield, he began to take aim, but before his finger found the trigger, Dash blewa streem of bullets through the mare and the soldier both, fountains of blood oozed out of their wounds as they fell to the ground.

XXXXX

Year 2036 - age forty, The Battle of the Argentine Moons.

Dash turned a corner around a few protruding rockfaces of the moon in her space suit, carrying an SMG in each hand as her squad followed her towards the target point.

One of the stallions behind her was hit and flailed around as his oxygen burst out of his suit, he fell to the ground choking before the vaccumated pressure made his eyes pop out of his head, and his head itself burst forth with a spray of brain matter accross his helmet.

Dash rounded to see the three ambushing soldiers, she turned and launched off a flurry of bullets each perfectly placed upon the soldiers helmets, ripping through the glass and puncturing holes in their skulls; Their brains oozed out into the space filled voide before the small gravity of the moon dragged them down to its surface.

XXXXX

A computer screen popped up adorning the following:

DASH 3465

SERGEANT 49-5829 58

COMBAT HISTORY***************

WAR OF THE SIX CITIES 03465-35471

CONFIRMED KILLS: 45

UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 75

SAUDI CAMPAIGN IGC-3541 95900

CONFIRMED KILLS: 57

UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 85

BATTLE OF ARGENTINE MOONS 4655-5582

CONFIRMED KILLS: 24

UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 48

BATTLE AT TANNHAUSER 4457-EIC-5547

CONFIRMED KILLS: 29

UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 37

MONTANA INSURRECTION II-44720-2237

CONFIRMED KILLS: 30

UNCONFIRMED KILLS: 35

BATTLE OF SHANGHI-

the list went on and on.

But to the left of the list was a picture of Dash's stone cold face, under the picture were the words: CURRENT STATUS: BETWEEN WARS

XXXXX

Dash sat on a perfectly made bed, sitting on its side with her knees spred and heands resting upon them, a luggage trunk at the foot of the bed, twenty identicale scenes to the side of her bunk, and the one to the side of that, and the one to the side of that, and the one to the side of the.

Every single soldier sitting back straight and eyes forward, all ripped, all carrying scars, all quiet, and all perfectly disciplined.

A Lt. walked down the stretch of marble carrying a clipboard while examining the soldiers before entering into the Captain's quarters above the maind trainging ground of the inner facility.

"SIR! Colonal Celestia's just come in with the new batch," the Lt. said as he stood at attention.

Luna overlooking the training ground turned with a quirked eyebrow.

"probably want's to show them off sir." the Lt. finished.

Within minutes, all of Luna's soldiers including Dash were standing at attention with their hands clasped behind their backs and standing side by side as they looked on at Celesita's own troops.

Accross from Dash stood and equally large and muscular mare, pink coated with a long straight mane falling down her back, blue eyes met amythest as the two soldiers stared blankly at one another.

Celestia entered in from a line of jeeps as one of Luna's Lt., Night Wing examined Pinkamena before shrugging and looking bat at her fellow Lt. Ghost.

"well... They're pretty..." she said almost mockingly, prompting Luna to chuckle before speaking herself, "what do you find so hot about them?"

"They're improved captain" Celestia said bluntly as she walked up to the darker mare.

Luna turned to face the white pony, where Luna was relaxed slightly informal, Celestia was overly dressed, horseshoe boots far more shined then need be, her pink mane extremely sleek, and not a single thread on her outfit out of place.

Even her face seemed to refuse a single blemesh or even a lip twitch that represented anything less than 'perfect' Luna gave a once over with her eyes as she mentally figured 'self esteem issues...'

Lt. Ghost stepped up next to Luna, "this is Colonal Celestia, she's their Commander."

Luna gave a riged salute which was returned in kind before they both took their hands down.

Luna thought back to what Celestia had said, "improved... how?"

Celestia gave a smug little smirk, "in every way possible" she said with a finality to her voice.

"you see, your old ones are selected at birth, my new ones we're talking recombination, they're practically manufactured using DNA profiling and *shrug* some manipulation."

Celestia turned to her soldiers with pride, "more endurance, quicker reflexes, better hand-eye, improved technical training... it's a whole different standard." she finished with that same satisfied smile that Luna was starting to get sick of.

Luna took a breath, "my daddy was in maintanance," she began, promptin her Lt. to both roll their eyes as they had both heard one too many tails of 'Luna's daddy this and that'.

"and he had a saying, he used to say: if it ain't broke, don't fix it." she finished with a slight glare.

Celestia rose her eye brows slightly, "maintanance?" she looked off to the side a bit with a dismissived 'hmm' look, "I'm afraid I... don't get you're point".

Luna looked over to Dash, "the veterans you see standing here have been through all kinds of heavy shit, and they've always got the job done," she then looked to Pinkamena, "now your new soldiers, these 'hot shots' how much action have they seen? And are they battle tested?" she asked in a condesending tone.

Dash looked traight into Pinkamena's eyes, neither had tore their gaze away from the other the entire time that the two Commanders had conversed.

Celestia's jaw grinded slightly before she put on a false smile, "how about a few tests, just to get you onboard. Make you a believer?"

XXXXX

One of Celestia's soldiers, Shining lay down in the shooting range at a sniper's distance from a large one hoof diameter metal sphere as he blew round after round from his assult rifle.

A counter next to the range marked off the bullets from the clip's total and calculated the percentage as the bullets pumped over and over into the sphere.

By the time that the bullets were finished, the meter read 99.

Ghost looked over at the meter in disbelief, "ninety nine... percent... that's... very good."

XXXXX

Inside the gym area, the soldiers lifted twice the max bench of Luna's soldiers, displayed highly enhaced combat in the sparing ring, and showed off their resiliance within a spherical spinning chamber that hurled the soldiers around before launching them out in an attempt to through them off balance.

"Seen enough 'Captain'?" One of Celestia's Lt. asked snidely.

Luna ground her teeth before looking over to the Lt. "what about endurance?"

XXXXX

Dash sprinted throughout the 50 mile long internal mile run of the facility, fog and mist shrouded the are while warning lights flashed on the ground to the sides of the run way.

Back in the main training area with the rest of the soldeirs lined up, Luna and Celestia stood looking at the two entrances to the mile run from the Captain's quarters in an elevated section of the large room.

Pinkamena was now staring directly at Twilight who stared right back.

Celestia lifted up a watch marking the time before she pressed a speaker button, "Pinkamena - 607"

Pinkamena stepped forward, "SIR!"

"50 miles 607, on the run. You have 60 minutes."

And with that, Pinkamena seemed bulleted past the other soldiers through the left entrance of the mile run.

Celestia held up her watch again, "my mare left exactly... twenty minutes after yours, make a note of that."

minutes passed...

Dash ran diligintly as her stamina began lowering, her heart beat thuding over and over as she heart the thundering of boots from behind her.

Within another minute, Pinkamena passed Dash, her limbs swinging almost robotically as she shot through like a train.

More minutes passed, soon an entire hour had passed, and a few minutes more.

Celestia smiled as she titled her head, she and Luna were now standing before the soldiers infront of the mile run, Luna was pacing back and forth as stress began to build up, there was no way anypony could beat dash in a race right? be it distance or speed... Let alone with a handicap.

"ofcourse age is a factor but the reall difference is the training program," Celesita began, "Psychological, the mind controls the body after all." she said as she turned to face Luna, "and we are doing such, _wonderful_ things with the mind" she said with an almost perverse smile.

After an hour and a half, Dash finally came through the right entrance of the mile run. The cyan mare ran up beside Pinkamena and stood attention, drenched in sweat; she gave a salute to Lt. Ghost, "SIR!"

The Lt. saluted her back.

"at ease soldier."

Luna squinted, "what _is_ the price of all that speed?" Luna asked as she faced Celestia, "is your soldier tired?"

Celestia chuckled with an amused look, "tired?" she asked almost laughingly.

Luna looked towards Dash, "Dash has run the pace she's been taught to run, and she's still strung." she mused as she looked over to her Lt. "put 'em up the chain group"

Ghost nodded before turning to face Dash, "SOLDIER! UP THE CHAIN!"

Dash gave a salute, "SIR!" and with that, she sprinted towards the chains hanging from the 40 hoof high ceiling.

Every few hooves or so, there was a flat disk of an interlock that could be used to stand on as one grasped the chain with their hands.

Dash began climbing the chain, using her hands to hoist herself up and her legs to assist her by pinching the chain between her hooves and pushing up.

Celestia puased for a minute, "...607 up the chain on the double!" she ordered.

Pinkamena looked to her Commander, "SIR!" she yelled before dashing over to the chains, but when she climbed, she used only her arms as her legs dangled freely; she pulled and pulled with her arms as they hoisted her up with unrealistic ease.

Soon both mares were a very good distance up, but Pinkamena had reached the high point long before Dash who was still extremely winded from the run.

Once both stood on their own perspective chain, Dash stared at Pinkamena with her cold blank eyes, panting through her nose.

Pinkamena didn't even look like her heart rate was up, she calmly breathed as she looked Dash up and down as if to say, 'is this all you got?'

Luna mentally groaned, so far Celestia's troups had surpassed her own in every test they posed, she ran a hand through her turquise mane as she tried to think of something that Celesita's soldiers couldn't best her own at.

"... what about spirit?" Luna asked.

Celestia smirked, "I think you mean AQ Captain? Aggressive Qualities? Much higher, much better." she replied.

Luna took in a breath before letting it out, "... what if, they fought?", it was now or never, Luna figured that if they'd come this far, she might as well throw all her chips in.

Celestia looked slightly taken aback, "you meant up there?" she looked up to the chains.

Luna stared into the Colonal's eyes, "go ahead Ghost, tell Dash to take her-"

"no." Celestia cut in plainly.

Luna turned and tiled her head while still keeping her eyes on Celestia with brows slightly raised, "no?"

Celestia gave a little rock on her hooves, "not fair... no contest. Send two more up their to help her out."

Luna gave an affirmative nod to her Lt.

Ghost turned towards Luna's soldiers, "DUMBELL! SNOWFLAKE! UP THE CHAIN!"

The two soldiers charged up the chains to join Dash, once they were up their, the three soldiers surrounded Pinkamena.

Pinkamena cocked a grow as she looked at the other two soldiers.

Luna and Celesita looked at eachother before bringing their gaze back up towards the soldiers above.

Ghost took in a deep breath, "SICK 'EM COLTS!"

Dash feinted in with her signature dashing speed for a quick strike, but was immedately struck in the face by a quick snap of Pinkamena's fist, the fast 'light' punch nearly sent her flying with the almost inequine strength behind it; A following strike knocked Dash off her stable position on the two chains she'd been standing on, she fell a few hooves before clasping both hands instinctively around a chain.

Dumbell rushed in from Pinkamena's right flank, but was immediately met with a powerful thrust kick to the stomach that sent the stallion surging backwards, luckilly he grabbed hold of a nearby chain before falling.

Snowflake retracted his hulking arm and jabbed at Pinkamena's face, her head sweapt to the side dodging it reflexively, another jab and another dodge followed by Pinkamena lowering down and swinging her left hand down at Snowflake's side; the force obliterated three of his ribs.

But PInkamena didn't stop there, she stood back up, within the same instant that she'd counter attacked, and grabbed hold of Snowflake's arm, yanked it in, and slammed the elbow down on her own forearm.

The folcrum point snapped the joint, breaking Snowflake's arm; Pinkamena then brought her right hand back and with a shout, crashed the hard part of her palm on Snowflake's head.

The stallion dropped backwards.

Just as Dash climbed back up to the battle, Pinkamena hopped onto some chains behind her, grabbed the chains with her hands, lifted her two hooves up, and jutted them out at Dash's back which sent her flying forwards and down about 10 hooves before Dash clamped onto two chains.

Dash shook her head before quickly recovering and began to climb her way back up the chains as Snowflake and Dumbelle tried their best to get in a few quick strikes at Pinkamena which she either dodged, or blocked.

Snowflake attempted to used a double kick like Pinkamena had, but she quickly leaned backwards to dodge it while at the same time smashing the back of her head into Dumbelle's face.

Then, Pinkamena lifted her body sideways in a flying kick position before crashing her hooves into Snowflake's chest, the stallion yelped as he began falling backward while flailing his hands around in a futile attempt to grasp onto a chain.

Snowlfake yelled as he plummeted to the concrete ground, his body slammed into it with a sicking thud, blood splattered out of his mouth and his body twitched a bit before going slack.

Celestia turned to look at Luna a 'I told you so' look while Lun met her gaze with her lip slightly curled.

As Dash tried to recover and climb back up, Pinkamena kicked downward at her face which sent him cascading downard before catching yet another chain.

Dumbelle to the opportunity to use a muay thai flying knee right into Pinkamena's back before grabbing her in a reverse clinch.

What followed was a series of elbow battering spikes into Pinkamena's jugular area.

Pinkamena immediately reacted with a downward strike of an open hand which smacked into Dumbelle's groin causing him to cry out in pain before the hand came back up in a fist to clobber Dumbelle's face.

Dumbelle fell backwards a bit prompting Pinkamena to spin around and Thai kick him in the stomach, then switch stances, and do the same to his back.

Dumbelle fell downwards until was just a few hooves above the ground, at this point his pants cought on a sharpened broken edge of a chain disk; his body did a 180 until he was upside down, the sudden switch in kinetic direction caused the momentum to stretch his spine until it snapped, his back severed as his torso spasmed chaotically; amazingly he was still alive.

Pinkamean's eyes scanned the chains searching for Dash who seeme'd to have dissappeared...

Dash looked down from above with blood running down her nose as Pinkamena scanned the area below.

Without hesitation, Dash dropped down ontop of Pinkamena's back and locked her left arm around the pink mare in a rear naked choke.

Pinkamena struggled, her mouth gaped like a fish as the blood supply to her brain was cut off.

The two wrestled a bit before Pinkamena managed to turne her head just engough to dig her teeth into Dash's biscep.

Dash's lips curled as her head shook with adrenalin from a mixture of pain, anger, frustration, and desperation.

As blood ran down her arm, Dash brough her free hand over Pinkamena's head and dug her index and middle finger into Pinkamena's right eye.

With a heave, Dash gouged Pinkamena's eye right out of her head.

Pinkamena cried out in pain as blood rand from her socked along with the gouge along her right eye's general area formed from Dash's nails.

Luna smiled proudly with a lick of her teeth and a chuckle.

Celestia frowned disapprovingly.

Pinkamena lifted her left arm up and slamed her elbow back into Dash's stomach, the rainbow maned mare fell a few hooves before latching her right arm around Pinkamena's waist and letting loose all of her might on Pinkamena's kidnee, she drew her left fist all the way back in the air and with full smooth archs, slammed swing after powerful swing into PInkamena's side and striking with all the might her large muscles could offer.

Pinkamena retaliated with three very rappid and insanely fast elbow strikes to Dash's face causing the mare's body to go slack from system's shock.

Dash fell.

Dash's arms reached out blindly, caught hold of some chains but not with enough force to stop her decent, the metal burned her palms as fricktion built up when one of the flat discks on each chain caught on her wrists, snapping them both.

Dash's body plummeted to the ground, her frame landed right ontop of Snowflake's, cold empty eyes wide open.

Twilight within the ranks of Luna's other soldiers gave an eye twitch, they weren't allowed much personal intereaction with oneanother but when they were, Twilight and Dash had always been at oneanother's side, they always had eachother's back in every combat situation, they were sisters in arms... or atleast they were...

"get down here..." Celestia said quietly, "get down HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Pinkamena began descending at a rappid pace.

"GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE ON THE DOUBLE! COME ON! DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!"

Soon PInkamena was standing before the corpses and stood at atention infront of Celestia, "SIR!"

Celestia's once perfect reserve was now deminishing as her face contorted in anger, her mane disheveled.

Celestia stood infront of PInkamena with a look of disgust on her face, "look at you... do you know how much it cost to breed you, you big moron?" she said looking at Pinkamena's bloodied face, two large gashes along her now missing and gore filled eye pussing with retine jelly and torn eye muscles.

"to _train_ you... _feed_ you!..." Celestia finished with agitation clear in her voice, she turned and walked along the concrete floor, "what good is this mare now?... she's got no depth perception... all she can do now is walk point... and take the first hit!..." she shouted out while looked along both her own and Luna's soldiers.

Night Wing looked with a sad frown at the three dead soldeirs under the chains, "what do we do about them?"

"waste disposal" Celestia answered as she walked back over to Pinkamena and looked her in the eye, "...fall in..."

"SIR!"

Pinkamena jogged back over to her spot in Celestia's ranks.

Celestia looked on with a twitching furious eye.

Dash's body was dragged off of the heap.

Luna stood next to Celestia with a melancholy sigh, "Dash was our best soldier..." she said absentmindedly.

Celestia turned her head to Luna with an 'are you kiding me?' look, "you still don't get it do you Captain?" she said before drawing her revolver and pointing it at Dumble's upsidedown head.

A bang sounded as Dumbelle's head jerked back from the force of the bullet, his body swayed slightly on the chaing he was haning from.

Celestia looked back towards Luna, "your dogs," she began an airy calm, "are obsolete."

Luna turned her head in shame and defeat.

"we'll write this up as a training accident," Celestia started, "make sure the bodies get dumped a _long_ way from here, we don't wanna have any unnesessary questions.

XXXXX

Deep in the outer reaches of space...

P376 Waste Disposal Ship.

Inside the dump space ship, amidst trash and other rubbish, were three bodies, one of them Dash's her body motionless with eyes close until...

A sudden gasp of breath, Dash's eyes snapped open, she sat up instantly, then immediately regretted it with the pain in her broken bones.

"ugh... hnnn..." she turned her head around to see the dead bodies of Snowflake and Dumbelle.

"..."

Dash looked around her perimeter but was given no time to adapt as a loud sired sounded, the entire area shook as yellow lights flashed around the room.

Immediately combat instincts kicked in, Dash's mind ran through the situation as a battle zone, she searched quickly for cover but instead found the ground beneath her start to shake and fall apart.

Dash hopped up and grabbed onto a neaby pipe as the botom of the garbage container opened downward like a blooming flower, the trash along with the two soldier's corpses fell through.

Rubish fell past her, her holding gave out and before she knew it, she fell through as well.

As she fell, her eyes zipped around the alien planet, alien to her, a soldier who knew nothing other than how to kill and avoid dying in the process.

But to others, this was known as Arcadia 234 Waste Disposal Planet, a far off distant world used as a dump site for landfill.

Dash fell long and fast but thankfully landed amidst a large pile of garbage which broke her fall.

She rose up and held her side while panting, she looked up to see the garbaghe ship take up, marooning her on this waste land of garbage hills with two suns and thundering clouds.

But her soldier training refused to let her panick, she scouted the area looking for any threats or possible non hostiles.

Gazing down, she caught a glimps of four ponies making their way through a dusty sandstorm along the wasteland of the planet's surface.

The stench of old rotted garbage and bacteria perfumed the entire dump site.

Dash made a decision and steathilly climbed down the garbage mountain o the sandy flat lands, she looked around trying to regain sight of the four ponies when a strange whistling noise filled her equine ears which twitched at the ghostly wail.

Dash's head whiped around at the sound, searching for the source, it seemed to come from every direction; all of her warrior instincts told her that enemies were about to close in, but she had now weapon, and she was badly wounded with what was likely internal bleeding, bone fractures, possibly a few organs ruptured, there was no way to be sure without a medic.

Then she saw it, Dash's eyes widened as they locked on the source of the sound, a giant twenty hoof high typhoon of dust and sand came stampeting like a herd of bulls towards her.

Looking forward, time seemed to slow as adrenalin kicked in, she quickly spoted a minute meter impailed into the desert wastes just a few hooves infront of her; Dash made a mad sprint forward and clamped her hands around it just before the sandstorm crashed into her like a hurricane.

The sheer strength of the gale was terrifying, but Dash held on for dear life, the minute meter began spliting, her grasping palms began slicing themselves on the sharp metal yet still there was no way in Tartarus that she was letting go.

Dangerous debris flew past her at terrifying speeds but luckilly none of it was in her direct trajectory.

At last the winds past, Dash stood up with her bleeding hands and clutched one of them over her injured stomach, she drowsilly limped along the sandy wastes, nearly falling over from sheer exaustion as she still had not had a single bit of respite since the mile run and... The fight with that other soldier...

Memories of Pinkamena idly flashed through Dash's mind as she limped on ever forwards.

Certain questions demanded her attention, why was she here? Was this some sort of training excercise? Was it a rehabilitation as punishment for losing? Was this a new war zone that required as much stealth as possible? Perhaps that's why they sent her in with two corpses, maybe those four ponies she saw earlier were part of the enemy forces.

Maybe that's why she was ordered to fight against Pinkamena, to bloody her up and make it look like she was dead, perhaps to pass some sort of security check on that drop ship.

Although that was a pretty messy drop ship, not to mention she'd never seen a military vessele like that before, a new model?

Dash could only wonder, it wasn't her place to verbalize her concerns or ponderings, it was her place to point and shoot.

Although it would be nice to have some official orders... And a gun.

Either way, first priority, find shelter to mend wounds. Second priority, get a weapon. Third priority, establish a base camp. Fourth priority, identify and observe hostile targets. Fith priority, neutralize hostile force. Sixth priority, get in contact with HQ. Seventh priority, randevouze with evac for extraction.

Once she'd layed out the plan in her mind, she nodded; as far as she was concerned, she was still on the job and this was a hostile territory in which she needed to watch her ass.

After several mintues, she found her way into a makeshift graveyard filled with crosses made from metal debris, golf clubs, iron pipes, crowbars, whatever could be found Dash guessed.

Further exploration from her to a hill and a slew of ropes almost like a bridge support, she seemd to be entering some sort of crudely build city, words painted on a large metal sheet read: PONYVILLE.

The place looked retro-post-apacolyptic in design, but Dash had little time to admire the architecture as she spotted a few more ponies down below the rafter she was on, she immediately tensed up and crouched down low.

Prepared for anything, she watched the ponies covered in tattered clothing with scarves and goggles on their faces walk along the lower sections before she herself walked through and opening in the higher area.

As she moved, she saw torches set up along stone walls, stairs seemed to be carved into them with ponies walking by wielding hand torches as they went.

Dashe snapped her head to the right as she saw some doors open below the stairwell that she had snuck into, she quickly went prone ontop of the stairs and watched vigilantly as two ponies walked through a large double door of improvised metal sheets.

But as the doors opened and the ponies walked through, the same sandstorm gale from earlier tore through and knocked Dash off her tactical spot, she flew through the air for a bit until gravity yanked her down into the middle of the stairs, the angled stone steps bit inot her back causing her to grunt in pain as she rolled down the rest of the flight.

At the bottom she landed on her stomach with another grunt.

Hooves clambered down the steps, Dash weekily looked up as blood trailed down her lips and into the sand below, soaking into it and staining it red.

As she looked up, she saw the most bizaar sight, a sight she hadn't seen for thirty years.

Looking up... she saw three foals, a colt and two fillies.

Dash's face twisted and contorted in confusion, she'd never been faced with foals before... her addled mind crashed onto her, she felt weak and tired, her body broken and exausted beyond all measure, and that last bit of the stairs did her in.

But before she fell unconcious, her eyes met something that she wholeheartedly did not expect; her cold blank eyes locked with another pair of the exact same cold empty eyes.

The small orange coated and purple maned filly peered right into Dash's empty eyes, the eyes of a natural born killer; and Dash stared right into this orange filly's eyes, the eyes of one one who'd seen terrible things, one who would enevitably one day become, a dog of war.

Just like her.

And with that, Dash blacked out, letting sweet, sweet rest over take her body as she fell into an abyss of darkness and sleep.

A mare's hands grabbed hold of Dash's unconcious body and carried her off into the depths of Ponyville city.

End of Chapter One.


	2. Friends

Chapter Two, Friends

-how easy it is to throw something away like garbage, how easy it is to cast aside that which we deem useless. How easy it is... To become useless ourselves.- excerpt from _the secret book of Bemnal the Fallen_

Children ran up a set of stone stairs into a cacaphony of ponies babbling and whining, a large settlement of mares and stallions veered for attention on the lower level of a two floor open room fixed with metal grating atop the second floor.

"Mayor! Mayor! Give us _something_ anything!" somepony yelled out, everypony was demanding attention for their own sakes, each wanting to know about the mysterious visitor they were now harbouring. The soldier.

Mayor Mare stepped up to the podium and yelled out the crowd, "QUIET, QUIET!" while signalling with her hands for the congragation of ponies to settle down.

"how many of them are there?" Sapphire Shores demanded.

"There is one mare, unarmed." Mayore Mare answered plainly.

"how can there only be one? how did she get here?" cried one of the ponies within the gaggle of bodies.

Big Macintosh stepped up next to the podium, "she was a wonderer, if we hadn't found 'er... she'd be dead." he said solemnly.

Before anypony could reply, two scouts walked into the town hall, "we looked all around," one of the stallions said while panting, "there's nothin' out there." he finished with a nod as he recovered from the lasting effects of the storm. "couldn't see nopony, no ships, no nothing, plus the winds are up way to high."

More rabling batner filled the room before the Mayor called for order.

"Everypony callllm down!" she said while waiting for the denizens of Ponyville to do just that.

"...We have an injured mare among us," a paus, "we all want to do the decent thing..." another pause as she scanned the civilians, "the decent thing is to help her." she gestured to Big Mac with her head, "Big Mac and his wife are looking after her now and they could use support from all of you..

Sapphire's lips cringed as she looked back and forth before raising a finger to point at the large red stallion, "well you keep an eye on her Mac," she warned, "you watch her." Sapphire turned and left without another word.

XXXXX

A room.

A room filled with yellow sheet tapestries strewn about the place as improvised insulation with CDs hanging from strings as substitutional decorations, the room littered with what once was junk but now served to liven the place up a bit.

Fluttershy entered the main foyer of the room with a spoon and bottle in her hand, she was dressed in the same tattered rags as most everypony else, anything that one could get ahold of would need to suffice.

Fluttershy finished her roundabout and centered on the other side of the bed with a kneel; she observed the unconcious Dash.

The soldier was lying on her side with her eyes closed but breathing tensly if slightly relaxed, Fluttershy's head tilted as she examined the branding tattoed numbers and letters on the mare's arms along with a gashing scar.

When Fluttershy's eyes met Dash's she found them open and staring back at her, cold empty eyes, something she'd rarely seen in her life save for a few old veterans who had long since died of old age or sickness.

Fluttersy paused for a bit before looking down and filling the spoon with a medicine before bringing it close to Dash's head.

Dash reflexively twitched her head slightly away, thinking that it was perhaps poison.

Fluttershy's brows furrowed in confusion although after thinking about it, waking up in a strange place with somepony trying to stick something down your throat probably would not go down so well with her either.

But after a short while Dash opened her mouth slightly and Fluttershy was able to get the medicine in; Dash silently drank it while staring into Flutterhy's eyes the whole time.

XXXXX

Fluttershy was leaning against a table infront of Big Mac while she thought to herself.

"... She has a mark on her arm... Argentine sector, shanghai 2012..." she said softly.

Big Mac rolled the information around in his head for a while before standing up, "That's a mark given to survivors o' the Shanghai battle..." he turned to face his wife, "she's a soldier, one o' Luna's dogs o' war."

XXXXX

Scootaloo ran around the small home until she came accross a resting Dash.

Dash rolled over to face the small filly and their blank silent eyes met, the same eyes Dash had seen earlier.

Moments passed as they stared at one another... moments passed into minutes...

"Hey, come over 'ere" Big Mac called out which prompted Scootaloo to turn and leave the soldier's line of sight.

Dash's eyes slowly closed as she once again entered the black empty realm of sleep.

XXXXX

A gaggle of the most bizaar sound resonated in Dash's ears, her eyes shot open and her head snapped to the left seeking the source of the sound, but all that she found was Fluttershy on her back with Scootaloo ontop of her and Big Mac giving them both rasberries.

Again came that bizaar sound... Dash had never heard that sound before, a sort of repeated yelling with intense energy and brazeness.

The sound of laughter.

Dash rose and limped over to investigate the strange noise, leaning against a nearby column, she stared with intensity at the joyous familly in a mixture of curiousity and caution.

Big Mac looked up to see the intimidating presence of the soldier before him, he slowly rose to his hooves as did his wife and daughter, Fluttershy picked Scootaloo up and stood behind Big Mac.

"We're uh, sorreh if we woke ya..." Big Mac said nervously, "we were, uh, we were playing with the filly" he gave a quick little gesture to his daughter.

Dash continued to silently stare.

"..." Big Mac turned his outstreched arm behind him, "Ah made somethin' for ya." he said as he carefully stepped back and grabbed hold of a makeshift crutch.

Dash's body tensed up as her eyes hardened with paranoia, her mind percieving the stick as a weapon; an aura of tense unease filled the air while Dash's muscles tensed up and her mind began racing into a battle ready stage.

Big Mac slowly walked over to the mare, "i-it's... uh, i'it's fer ya tah walk on," he said cautiously as he demonstrated using the crutch, "l-like this! see?" he finished with a shaky smile.

Dash's body somewhat relaxed but she still remained wary.

XXXXX

A couple weeks later, Dash was mended enough to enter into be walking about and was sitting within the messhall of Ponyville.

Currently, Dash was shoveling bite after bite of her food into her mouth with all haste just as she'd been trained to do for fourty years.

One of the ponies stared at him with a raised eye brow.

Big Mac scooped some more food onto her plate thinking that she was eating so fervantly due to genuine hunger.

A small ways down the table, Sapphire Shores tossed her bread down onto her plate, stood up, and marched down the table to where Dash was.

"I don't see how you can _not _ remember how you got here Sergent!" she began with obvious spite in her voice.

Dash looked up from her meal while still chewing.

"You're not a deserter are you Sergent?" Sapphire asked almost chidingly.

Dash stood up straight causing her chair's legs to scrape against the ground as it slid out from underneath her.

Everypony's eyes turned towards her in sudden fright, even Sapphire took a reflexive step back.

Whispers hushed whispers filled the room as ponies stared at him as one would a lone wolf in the middle of the forest.

"... No sir." Dash said plainly.

Sapphire blinked, "then how come you're not with your unit?" she asked.

"oh come one, let the mare eat!" Bon Bon criticized which prompted Sapphire to glare at her, "it's not an unreasonable question!"

Everypony uncomfortable shifted as they turned back to Dash, almost afraid of the answer.

Dash stared blankly ahead. She'd had pleanty of time to think since she began mending.

In that time she'd convinced herself of three things:

1. This was not a hostile enemy force.

2. She was not sent on any sort of mission by her superior officers.

And 3...

"How 'bout it Sergent?" Sapphire urged.

3... "I was... _replaced_" Dash spoke somewhat uncomfortably.

Big Mac's face messed up in confusion, "replaced?"

Dash's head quickly turned to face the red stallion, "by a better soldier sir."

The full realization of the situation landed on everypony's ears, even Saphhire seemed taken aback as she gulped.

Replaced... in otherwords... thrown away, uneeded and unwanted like a fifth wheel.

XXXXX

Fluttershy strung up a sheet as she spoke, "when we left home planet twelve years ago, we ened up here." She said as she turned to fix up some hot water for washing clothes.

"When we crashed, a lot of us died. A couple years later when the _dumpers_ started coming by and dropping stuff, we tried to get their attention with," Fluttershy chuckled, "fires and explosions." a soft shake of her head, "they must be unstallioned or..." another chuckle, "maybe they just don't care."

Fluttershy turned to face Dash, "so we gave up on a 'better life' on the trinity moon and, settled here. One good thing though," she said with a smile, "nopony bothers us."

As Fluttersy strung up the shirts she'd handwashed, Dash stared at the slender mare's figure, she'd never seen a 'beautiful' pony before, always officials in uniform or fellow soldiers or perhaps a few bloodied corpses of fallen enemies but...

This was different, a strange feeling knitted its way in her stomach as she watched Fluttershy stretch up and string the clothes while her own shirt rose lightly from the action.

"who'd wanna fight for a God foresaken planet like this anyway?" Fluttershy looked back down at Dash who she now noticed was staring at her body.

Dash's eyes snapped up to meet Fluttershy's, or more so to meet her face, soft unscarred features, a well kempt mane and cheeks full of color and vibrance, and her eyes; warm tender eyes so full of life and kindness, a look that Dash could scarcellely comprehend to find within another's eyes. Admitedly... It was... Nice... Beautiful.

"but... I-I guess you like the fighting..." Fluttershy said flustered while avoiding eye contact, "you're... A soldier" she finished with a helpless shrug.

Dash too looked away, staring blankly into nothingness as she for the first time, contemplated her existence...

XXXXX

"the first bi-anual security sweep, we'll be patrolling the Arcadia system, we're gonna set up unstallioned monitoring systems, here," Cellesitia held out a pointer towards a star map layed out on a table within the war council meeting.

"here, here, and here. We send the new soldiers out on patrol," Celestia spoke while straigtening her back, "and as you said Captain," she turned to face Luna, "they'll need real experience and it'll be nice to see them out in a non training environment.

Luna quirked an amused brow, "_you're_ coming?" she asked almost jokingly.

Celestia blinked before making an, 'we are not amused' face, "yes Captain, I want to see these ponies up close in action."

Luna gave a quiet 'humph' "well, what about opposition?" she inquired.

Celestia rolled her eyes as she looked back down at the star map, "the outlands are deserted, we're just confirming that."

Luna 'hmmed' "and if we _do_ encounter activity," Celestia physically groaned without a sound, "miners, reffugies of some sort." Luna finished.

Celestia turned with annoyance present in her stance, "well we won't and if we do then," she shruged, "we'll just classify them as hostiles."

Luna lightly glared, "just by being there..."

Celestia curled the corner of her mouth into a smile while looking slightly away, "we don't want paper work Captain and we certainly don't want pasengers" Celestia finished while retracting her pointer.

XXXXX

A week or so later...

Dash sat amongst the Ponyville indoor garden while Fluttershy showed her how to plant some herbs, she gently scooped the dirt around the clovers after it was planted, nearby, a green snake native to this alien planet hissed as it slithered its way through the garden's fruits and veggies.

As soon as its hiss registered in Dash's brain, she turned to it with a threatening glare, ready to grab a wapon.

But before Dash even moved, Fluttershy decapitated the snake with a garden cleaver.

The yellow mare tossed the snake's dead body over to the edge of the garden with a shudder, "ugh, you have to watch out for those," she began as she returned to the gardening, "it won't kill somepony your size but... Somepony smaller like me or... Or Scootaloo..." she continued.

Dash turned over to look at the snake's twitching severed body.

"Scootaloo... she almost died." Fluttershy said while looking into dash's eyes. Eyes that weren't quite as empty as before.

"she was sick for a long time, and now she can't speak." Fluttershy spoke with a sad smile and a gaze into the soil.

Dash processed the information until it was interrupted by Fluttershy handing her a patch of soil adorning some clover herbs, "you try." she said encouragingly.

Dash stared blankly, "..."

Fluttershy lightly moved her hand up an down with a nod, "here."

Dash slowly grabbed the herb in her fingerless gloved hand, she was now adorned in rags similar to the other denizens of Ponyville.

At first Dash stared intently at the herb, as if expecting the plant itself to give her further instructions.

When she recieved none, the cyan mare slowly brought it down into the well of dirt that had been spread, and then placed her hands on either side of the plant before giving the soil beneath a quick and firm shove which swaddled the base of the herb.

Fluttershy smiled approvingly.

XXXXX

A reconissance of nine ponies trudged through the sandy wastes of the baren planet.

"anythin' we need 'round the village, we salvage 'round 'ere" Big Mac explained to Dash as he attatched a series of harnesses and safety lines to Lyra's belt, "yer all set Lyra!"

"back in a minute!" the mint mare responded as she headed towards the junk yard.

As she did so, Big Mac walked back towards Dash, "whatever looks useful, an' we can get a chain on, we'll take it."

Lyra reached a metalic structure and synched a safety line attatchement through a punctured hole.

A billowing and almost whistling noise filled the air which caused Dash to look up at the sky as memory served her painful reminitions of that sound.

"now ya here that?" Big Mac asked, "that means she's really close," Big Mac turned to Lyra, "LYRA! IT'S A COMIN' IN!"

Lyra quickly set up her mask and goggles and turned to leave but... she was halted... turning her head back, Lyra saw a section of her own safetly catching on the chain, she pulled and yanked at it as the winds picked up.

Big Mac looked back to her, "COME ON! WE GOTTA MOVE!" he shouted over the high pitched ringing.

Lyra finally managed to pull free and began a very unstable gait towards the long strand of secured ropes that everypony else had their hands on, the only safe hoof hold against the relentless gales.

The winds billowed and pushed Lyra as she attempted to stabalize herself, far to her side, a generator of metal interlocking and thin bars began to spin; within seconds it became a deadly blender of steel, and the storm began pushing Lyra in its direction.

"COME ON HURRY UP! LET'S GO!" Big Mac called out while extending his hand to a struggling Lyra.

Tensions rose and Lyra felt her adrenalin pumping through her veins as the relentless gusts spun her around until her back faced the whirling blades of the generator, she tried to stem the tides of the cyclone and shield her face from the wind while slowly walking against the currents.

Before she knew it, a large burst of wind at low altitude knocked out Lyra's legs, she fell to the ground causing all of the reconissance ponies to begin panicking.

Big Mac's eyes widened and he immedeaitely lunged forward with his safety line attatching him to the ropes, he landed on his stomach with his hand just out of reach of Lyra's.

After a few moments, a stop sign flew past them and straight into the generator which then proceeded to obliterate it.

"COME ON REACH! YOU CAN DO IT! REEEAACCH!"

Lyra streched out her arm as far as her muscles would allow, but a powerful gust tore through and sent her flying backwards, her safety line whizing out of its coiled container as she slid accross the sand while pawing helplessly at the ground in a panicked attempt to grasp a hoof holding.

Eventually the winds lifted her off the ground and soon she was holding on desperately to her safety line.

"PUULLLL!"

The safety line let out more and more slack causing Lyra's body to draw closer and closer to the whirling blades.

"PUULLLLL!"

Ponies grasped hold of Lyra's line and tried their best to pull her back in towards the ropes but the weight of the pony being directed in the opposite direction was nearly impossible to resist against the furious storm.

Just as Lyra's horseshoe boots began getting a shave from the generator, the safety line was suddenly being drawn in.

Ponies looked down at the line in their hands in amazement, it was like suddenly the weight had all gone slack, slowly each pony loosened on the line yet each time it continued to be reelled in.

Ponies turned their heads to look up at Dash and watched as she single handedly wrestled Lyra back towards the safety ropes.

When Lyra was close enough, ponies launched out and grabbed hold of her from all around.

"wooohooo!" the ponies cheered foalishly as the wind died down, reliefed chuckles and friendly laughter filled the area as ponies embraced and patted oneanother's backs.

All the while, Dash stood in the background, her head turned and scanned the area when her eyes caught sight of something... Familiar.

Dash walked over to an outstretched pipe and pulled off a very old german model assult rifle.

Big Mac's laughs died down as he turned to look at Dash, his smile slowly fading.

Lyra looked over at Mac and noticed his frown which prompted her own big stupid grin to slowly creep away.

Dash pressed the release button causing the clip to pop out, she looked inside to see that bullet were still present within, then shoved the clip back into the gun and cocked the loading leaver.

At the sound of 'chk-chk' everyponie's smiles died away completely, their faces now adorned with fear and concern.

Big Mac stood infront of Dash who looked up at him.

Big Mac swallowed, "thank you..." he reached out his hand palm upward towards the barrel of the rifle.

Dash didn't move.

An akward silence insued.

Dash's eyes moved heaven word as a strange sound filled the air.

Everypony looked up to see a ship coming through.

Big Mac looked at the ship, "oh, them 'is dumpers, they come every twen'y 'er thirty days."

"uhm... if'n ya don't mind... the gun please?".

Dash blinked a few times as if waking from a daze and looked down at the gun, she shifted it to a vertical position holding it by the barrel and handed it to the stallion.

Big Mac grabbed the gun at which point everypony visibly relaxed while Dash stared back at the dumper ship.

Lyra walked over and placed a hand on Dash's shoulder, "hey thanks partner!"

Dash's head whiped around to burn a hole in Lyra with a stare, her body tensing up reflexively as memories of attackers grasping her shoulder flooded her mind.

Lyra unconciously took a step back, "well uh, thanks for um, not letting me blow away heh heh..." she stammered out.

"..." Dash turned and looked back in the direction of the ship while ponies cheered in the background.

XXXXX

The ponies made it back to Ponyville, memories flashed by of recent times spent in Ponyville for Dash, time spent with Big Mac... With... A friend.

Time spend with Fluttershy...

Planting stuff, creating life instead of destroying it...

Dash was in the kitchen with Fluttershy helping her cook, the cyan mare was cutting carrots while Fluttershy turned to see Big Mac arrive.

The yellow pony walked over to her husband as he embraced and kissed her.

Seeing her wash the clothes through the hot water, the steamy vapor creating a misty cloud around her face that illuminated her gentle beauty.

Seing Fluttershy's soft feminine beauty, her grace and love, her motherly kindnesss.

And as she watched, Dash's eyes softened, her gaze turned from the cold; they started to become... warm...

Dash kept cutting the carrot as Fluttershy knelt down beside Scootaloo who quietly played and tinkered with her toy.

As Dash watched Fluttershy motherly play with her daughter, the knife sliced through the first couple of layers of skin on her finger.

Dash looked down calmly at the source of the pain, stared at it for a few seconds, then went back to cutting the carrot as she turned her gaze back to Fluttershy and Scootaloo.

Blood oozed into the carrot as Dash continued to slice ice it, soon Fluttershy walked back over and noticed the fresh wound.

She pulled off a cloth and reached out for Dash's injured hand.

At Fluttershy's touch, Dash's body twitched slightly, muscle memory commanding her to retalliate with a defensive maneuver before plunging the knife into her attacker's neck.

Fluttershy looked up into Dash's eyes.

Dash's hand was lifted up as Fluttershy binded the wound, "must be hard..." she commented before looking from the wound back to Dash's eyes, "what's it like? What's it like being a soldier?"

Dash's mouth twitched and gave small little fidgiting contortions as her eyes shifted slightly, trying to work the question over in her head.

"well?... You must think about something?" Fluttershy quiped.

"..."

"what about feeling then? You must... feel something?"

"..." Dash and Fluttershy broke eye contact.

Dash looked over towards Scootaloo as she placed with some heart shaped metal bands, working them to gether and pulling them apart.

Dash turned back to Fluttershy as her eyes shifted around in short lived sporadic movements, her lips quivered as if about to speak but never quite opened.

Fluttershy looked away for a few moments before remeeting Dash's gaze.

"... Fear..." Dash said quietly.

"Fear?" Fluttershy asked.

"Fear and... disciplin." Dash replied with a swallow

"..now?" Fluttershy asked somewhat not wanting to know the answer.

"Always." Dash replied with finality to her voice.

"...my God..." Fluttershy breathed before slowly moving in towards Dash who tensed up slightly but was caught off guard when warm soft arms wrapped around her in a hug.

Dash began shaking chaotically as her body stood rigid, every fiber of her being, every ounce of her training screemed in her head that this was not ok. That this was some sort of attack. That this was not right. It took all of Dash's will not to shove Fluttershy off or in some way hurt her.

Fluttersy felt heat rise from Dash's body, intense berserk heat from somepony's blood rushing with adrenalin as if they were about to go into battle; with a tear streaming down her face, she pulled away and looked into Dash's eyes with her mouth very lightly ajar.

Once Fluttershy was a few hooves away, Dash visibly relaxed.

XXXXX

"HHAAAAPPPYYYY HEARTH'S WAARRMMIING!" a pony dressed up in a red suit cried as he handed out presents.

Octavia opted for a violen in the background while everypony danced and partied.

Over in a corner, Dash sat in a chair staring silently at the ponies within the room.

The sound of the violent faded out as she watched Big Mac and his family, she looked over to Fluttersy who gave her a small smile.

Dash's eye peered, silent but carrying a mixture of so many emotions... Emotions she wasn't allowed to feel.

"HAPPY HEARTH'S WARMING ARCHI!" the pony in the suit cried as she popped up out of nowhere in Dash's vision.

Dash's body shot with adrenalin as the faded memory of a bomb going off flooded her ears, the bowl of sandwiches she was holding fell to the ground as she stood up.

Loud sudden chaotic sounds from party toys and cheering turned to explosions and screems, her vision filled with images of fire enveloping cities and bodies falling to the blood soaked ground.

Dash whiped around in circles, blurred images of the party and dancing ponies swaped in and out with muffled gunfire, sudden blurps of images with Lt. standing above her; dogs rabbid with hunger charging through a cage to a helpless boar, blood splattering over a glass wall with rows of young fillies and colts forced to watch the carnage.

Dash's vision faded in and out as the party music rolled on until she caught sight of Fluttershy, smiling as she tussled Scootaloo's cheeks and gave her a kiss on the forehead before looking up to smile at Dash.

A look down at Scootaloo before looking back and... Dash was gone...

Fluttershy tugged on Big Mac's arm, he too began surveying the party for their large friend.

XXXXX

Far away from the ponies of the pary, up on the second floor, Dash peered down through a hole in the gbround at the dancing smiling ponies below...

She stod, turned, and left; then she sat with her back pressed against a stone wall.

XXXXX

"ya I was thinking of giving it to her last night but, she just dissapeared." Lyra commented while holding a scarf that she'd knitted for her savior.

"it's beuatiful lyra, ha, she'll love it." Fluttershy replied with a bit of a laugh.

"ya well, she saved my life out there, I guess Big Mac told ya." Lyra commented.

"you should give it to her yourself, she's in the meeting room... she's working out."

XXXXX

BANG BANG BANG

A metalic resonating clang filled the air as Dash's fists connected with a metalic barrel strung up on a robe like a punching bag, her fists swaddled up in cloth bandages.

Mayor Mare walked into the upper section of the meeting room to see what all the racket was about.

And there she found a group of foals standing silent as a crypt as they watched Dash's huge muscles crunch and creen with each ferocious punch.

Dash stood with her shirt off, body drenched in sweat while she wailed on the barrel with lightning quick yet incredibly strong blows, each connecting strike filling the air with another pang of metal.

Her face was contorted with rage and twisted in frustration as she gave out stressed grunts with each punch.

Mayor Mare gave a 'ahem' drawing the attention of the foals infront of her, "you're supposed to be doing your lessons with Cheerileee" she stated matter of factly while using both hands to point in the direction of the school.

As the foals filed out, Mayore Mare began to follow them but stopped to look back at the soldier before leaving.

As Dash hammered on the metal, time seemed to slow down a bit, each slow powerful hit came with a flash of white hot mental pain accompanied by a vision of ponies running through barbwired streets, flashes if fire and explosions in their wake, screeming as they rans.

BANG

The ponies ran and tried to avoid gunfire as soldiers shoved their way past the civilians.

BANG

Vehicals exploded as the enemy lines drew in closer, Dash chasing through the front lines with her squad.

BANG

Civilians ran, enemy soldiers pointed their rifles behind them and mowed them down.

BANG

Those soldiers merely met their ends as Dash blew through them from her crow's nest at the top of a city stone stair case.

BANG

Gun clips hit the ground.

Dash panted in her still slow mo'd state.

From the crow's nest, she looked down to see a few foals crouched over some dead civilians, one of the fillies looked up at her quietly with tears running down her face.

BANG

Dash raised the rifle and lined down her sights at the filly...

Then her instincts kicked in, she sensed an enemy soldier running in behind her.

REALITY:

Lyra walked into the mess hall and headed over to Dash.

MEMORY:

The soldier charged in from behind, he had no bullets left and thus launched at Dash with a knife, she immediately coutnered, knocked the knife out of her hand and locked her hand around the soldier's throat.

REALITY:

Lyra was choke slammed into a horrizantal gear, it's vertical counter part circling around and closing in towards the mint mare's head.

MEMORY:

the soldier struggled and attempted to find any remaining weapons.

REALITY:

Lyra's mouth gaped like a fish as her eyes sporatically moved around, the vertical gear began getting dangerously close.

MEMORY:

The soldier gave out a few more struggles, but his blood supply to his brain was cut off, his body began growing weak.

REALITY:

Dash's head seemed to vibrated with the fierce tension in her muscles, tears began pouring from Lyra's eyes.

MEMORY:

the soldier went unconcious, a fellow soldier came in and shot Dash's enemy in the head.

REALITY:

Dash blinked, now becoming aware of where she was, she looked forward and saw the gear coming around, then looked down and saw Lyra half concious.

Dash yanked Lyra out of the gear's path and released her.

Lyra fell to the ground and choked on air with big seperate gasps, still holding the scarf.

Standing above Lyra was a terrified little green and white filly with Bon Bon standing next to her adorning a horrified expression.

Several more foals from earlier looked down from the next floor up through the metal grating.

In the corner of the room, Mayor Mare stood with her arms crossed.

Dash looked to each of them still panting through her nose like an attack dog.

A long moment of silence passed.

XXXXX

Big Mac lie in bed with Fluttershy curled up next to him, her head resting on his chest.

Big Mac ran a hand through her pink mane, "they're upset about her... there's gonna be a meetin'..."

"she wasn't trying to hurt anypony..." Fluttershy mumbled out.

"that's what scares ponies... she's gettin' stronger every day." Big Mac replied sadly.

Fluttershy loked up at him, "are you scared of her being here?"

Big Mac looked into his wife's eyes, "... eeyup... Ah don't reckon' Ah've ever been afraid o'anypony like this... Ah feel like she could break meh in half without any effort in a heart beat without a thought or any... feeling."

XXXXX

Dash panted completely and utterly exausted as she still weakilly punched at the metal container, a few more fiers hits before she backed away with a woozy few steps... then gave a few more hits, the contaier splattered with bits of blood... Blood dripping from her knuckles...

She lowered her fists ever so slightly before raising them again and and going for another strike.

BANG

MEMORY:

Twelve years old again, back in the academy, a fight with another filly in the military class room.

The guards merely stood back and watched, the scientists observed.

Punch to the chest and a snap kick to the inner thigh, Gilda cringed but attempted a return attack with a haymaker, Dash caught it with her forearm, stepped in behind Gilda's right leg, and flipping her arm around, took the filly down to the ground.

Dash straddled Gild and began wailling punch after bunch down on the filly's face.

Twilight sat nearby in her own desk, watching as Dash swung left and right and left and right and left and right, never once ceasing in her barage of frenzied attacks.

Nopony said anything... Nopony did anything...

The scientist merely jotted down a few notes, the Lt. returned to their records, and the guards resumed their patrols.

The other foals watch Dash pant as she stood up, Gilda lay on the ground, her face unrecognizable, blood splattered accross her face.

Dead.

The whole time, that incistant voice of the proctor rang through, "A soldier shows no mercy. Mercy is a sign of weakness. Weakness is death."

Dash sat back in her seat as if nothing had happened, cold, bleak, empty eyes stared foreward as the squeel of that boar sang out in her head.

REALITY:

XXXXX

Dash's eyes snapped open as she bolted up right in her bed.

Standing at the hoof of her bed, was Scootaloo, she looked on silently at Dash, holding the puzzle metal hearts.

With a simple twist and pull, she pulled them apart and held each piece in each hand as if to say 'ta da...'

Scootaloo placed them on the bed, then turned and started to walk away.

That is, until she heard the hissing of a snake which caused her to gasp and freeze up, a green snake slitthered its way towards the orange filly.

Dash grabbed a boot and tossed it over to Scootaloo.

The filly turned to look silently back at Dash.

Dash grabbed the other horseshoe boot and demonstrated smashing it into the bed frame.

Scootaloo turned back to the snake as it sauntered its way towards her.

Just as the snake launched itself at the filly, Dash snatched it right out of the air, Scootaloo gasped.

Dash stared at the snake as it bared its fangs at her; she inspected it for a brief moment before tossing it to the ground a few hooves away.

Dash looked back at Scootaloo who stared blankly back in turn.

Dash gestured towards the snake with her head.

A metalic SHINK sound drew both of their attention as they turned to see Big Mack impail the snake's head with a pike before glaring at Dash.

"what the HAY do you think yer doin'? That coulda' killed 'er!" he shouted.

Fluttershy stared down silently at the scene before her before meeting Dash's now softened eyes.

XXXXX

"nopony here has any animosity towards you Sergent," Mayore Mare began, they all sat within the meeting room of the town hall.

"nopony here wants to be your enemy and infact we respect your qualities. We have no doubt that you are a very _very_ good soldier." Mayor Mare shifted her head, "but because of your training, we dont think you'll ever be able to function in a group like this community of families and foals, where the ability to fight is not the sole purpose of existance.".

Dash's eyes moved to see Sapphire holding the german rifle.

"You're different then us, and we don't hate you for that, but we have agreed that you pose an intollerable risk to the community." Mayore Mare continued.

"we'll give ya any supplies ya need, some food, new clothes, some boots to keep ya warm at night..." Big Mac said sorrofully.

Dash's eyes then moved down towards Fluttershy, who now looked back at her so differently then she used to, Fluttershy craddled Scootaloo protectively close to her.

"Sergent yer our friend..." Big Mac began with a shaky voice, "It's just that..." he couldn't continue as he trailled off with lightly quivering lip.

Dash's visage was stonefaced, but her eyes became so soft... and wet. Wet, but her rigid husk that had been fashioned over fourty years never let her eyes be anything beyond moist.

XXXXX

Big Mac handed Dash a water cantine, Das was suited up in warm clothing with scarves and and gloves and a backpack, she sashed the cantine around her shoulder and looked down at Scootaloo who stared back; then she looked up towards Fluttershy and Big Mac with still moist eyes.

A few silent seconds... Then Dash turned and left Ponyville, the skies thundering outside.

The ponies of Ponyville stood outside and looked as the Soldier turned back for one last gaze at Ponyville... then she fliped the sarf over her face and left.

XXXXX

Sitting out inside of a concrete cylinder near the junkyard, Dash's sat with her kneese up to her chest. There, she ever so slightly shook, and it was then and only then that her moist eye let out a lone tear that broke its way through her solid tank exterior and trailed its way down her face.

A hand reached up to sweep the tear up with her hand, she inspected the fluid with curiosity.

A few more small shakes before tears flowed freely, for the first time in her life, she wept. It was not the carnage of war, or the deaths of allies; it was the loss... Of friends.

Friends.

END OF CHAPTER.


	3. Dog of War (final chapter)

Chapter three, Dog of War

"Command we are on course for Arcadia, 234" spoke the console from the flight captain of a military drop ship headed for a baren desert planet.

XXXXX

Fluttershy and Big Mac slept quietly in their beds, unaware of a green snake slowly making its way up the sheets.

The serpant slithered its way up to the two pony's arms, crawled over and found its way on Big Mac's chest, just as its mouth opened, a hand snatched it by the tail and yanked it off the bed.

Loud thumps caused both ponies to shoot upright in bed, they looked down to see Scootaloo bombarding the serpant with a boot.

Big Mac and Fluttershy stared speechless as the snake came to a dead halt, Scootaloo looked up at them quietly.

XXXXX

"how will you find her?" Fluttershy called as Big Mac slapped on as much essentials as he could carry.

"she'll have stayed close tah the wire." Big Mac responded.

"but Mac... we all voted..." Fluttershy said quietly.

Big Mac nearly glared at her, "we voted wrong." he said sternly before leaving Ponyville in search of Dash.

Following the long strand of rope wire, he made his way to the junk yard and found DAsh sitting within a large cement cylinder in a make-shift camp.

"DASH!" Big Mac called out as he ran through the sand.

Dash turned her head to see Big Mac climbing his way through the rubbish.

"Dash..." Mac panted out, "we were wrong... We made a mistake." he said.

Dash stood up and looked him in the eyes.

"We're sorry..."

A noise from above caught both their attentions, they looked high in the sky to see a military drop ship entering the atmosphere, its looming presence blocked out the sun as it passed over.

Dash hopped out of the cylinder and stood next to Big Mac.

The red stallion did a double take, "s-scouting party! HEY!" he called out while waving his arms frantically in the air which were quickly thrust down by Dash.

Big Mac looked at the mare curiously.

The drop ship landed over on the far side of the junkyard amidts the heaping mountains of trash.

Dash turned to Big Mac, "stay with me sir." she spoke before running in the direction of Ponyville.

Over by the Drop ship, a cantainer was lowered which gave way to a large military vehical followed by several soldiers along with yet another vehical and more soldiers behind them.

Celesita from inside the drop ship, leaned in to the microphone and ordered out, "stand by for Arcadia 234 security sweep. Any tresspassers _will_ be considered hostile."

Meanwhile, Dash and Big Mac sprinted along the path home, and inside one of the military tanks, Pinkamena sat in the driver's seat with a surgically replaced eye.

XXXXX

A warning bell rang throughout Ponyville and its citizens scampered about the place in a chaotic sweep of frenzy and panic. Everypony rushed to get their families ready, a few meagerly trained stallions and mares grabbed hold of the pathetically small amount of weapons available to them.

Fluttershy's head whipped left and right at the sight of everypony rushing around her, she managed to grab hold of a neaby mare, "what's gong on, where is everypony going?"

"somepony's landing! They're gonna check it out!" the mare replied.

Far out of the city, the tanks and soldiers closed in along the rope wire system while Dash and Big Mac ducked through obsticals in an attempt to reach Ponyville before the army.

Pinkamena grabbed hold of her weapons system inside the tank as the computer in her vehical picked up two heat signatures moving about in the wasteland, "two hostiles." the computer rang out.

Dash and Big Mac charged with all haste as the tank's weapons system sprang to life, a section ontop began opening.

Time seemed to slow as Pinkamena pulled the trigger, a missile launched out just narrowly missing the two ponies.

Big Mac and Dash were launched forward from their position, the red stallion screeming as they fell.

Flaming debris surrounded them but Dash quickly recovered, she rose to her hooves and dragged Big Mac up with her; the two of them sprinted forward as gunfire hailed around them.

Another missile launched, this one hitting just a few hooves behind Big Mac, the kinetic shockwave sent him front flipping in the air with a yelp.

Dash stopped and turned, Big Mac lay on his back with his right leg blown off, the stallion looked down at it in wide eyed disbelief.

Dash's head whiped up to see the tank turning a corner around one of the rubbish mountains, she quickly rushed, grabbed Big Mac, and dragged him screeming in pain to behind a small hill of trash and debris.

Pinkamena watched her screen as the two triangles bliped out of sight, "hostiles eliminated."

Pinkamena looked around through the plexi-glass windows of the tank but didn't catch sight of anypony and thus carried on her predetermined route.

Dash took her scarf off and began tying a knot around Big Mac's leg, he cried out in pain which prompted Dash to shove the edge of her hand in his bouth to bite on.

Dash watched as the Tanks passed by while she synched the wound, Big Mac grunted in agonizing pain as his muslces were contracted.

"f-ferget it... Ah've lost too much blood... They're gonna... why? Why'd they attack us? W... was it a mistake?" Big Mac asked desperately.

Dash shook her head solemnly and looked towards the tanks.

Big Mac turned and saw them headed in the direction of Ponyville, "oh... oh God no..." he turned back to Dash with tears beginning to well up in his eyes, "p-please... they... Scootaloo... Scootaloo..." Big Mac shuddred out with a shaking body, horror filling his mind.

Then his head fell to the side, eyes going slack as his breathing stopped.

Dash stared at Big Mac's dead body... at her _friend's_ dead body...

Dash's head turned slowly in the direction of the tanks with a glare.

XXXXX

Ghost dashed through the hallways of the ship whilst short of breath until he came accross Luna playing cards in a room with Night Wing.

"ponies! They spoted ponies!" Ghost called out while heaving for air.

Luna looked up in shock.

"Two civilians! Unarmed, they killed both of them!".

Luna stood up with a grim look on her face.

"And they've found some sort of camp."

"Geeze they found a camp?" Night Wing exclaimed as she sntached up her jacket.

"exccellent this will be very good experience for the soldiers." Cellestia chimed in.

Luna's gaze snapped towards Celestia, "if their civilians then they need to be protected." she said sternly.

Celestia rose both eye brows, "whoever they are, they don't belong there," a shrug, "officially they're hostiles."

Luna's eyes went downcast.

XXXXX

The tanks came in close to Ponyville's outskirts.

"Barabane T4," Pinkamena called out, "prepare to deploy."

Inside of Ponyville's borders, a gaggle of Ponies squaked like birds in a large circle of bodies while Mayore Mare stood at its heart, "everypony callllm doooownn! I'm going out to go talk to them... Those of you with weapons, prepare to defend us." Mayor Mare traffiked her way out of the group of bodies as ponies voiced opinions and objections as well as concerns.

Lyra and Sapphire escorted the Mayor out of Ponyville's entrance into the sandy wasteland, they stayed prone with their sights lined down as Mayor Mare stepped forward.

Pinkamena flipped a few switches from inside the tank while the gunner uptop turned the turret to face the city.

Mayor Mare stared bravely forward into the slew of soldiers and war machines, "... God help us..."

Pinkamena pulled the trigger and a small missile soared out and hit Mayor Mare squar in the chest, her body exploded sending chunks of effluence accross Ponyville's entrance.

Pnies fired and fired their guns but more smissiles came through sending the gun ponies flying down into the depth of the city as soldiers stood lined up, "three pony fire team in position." one of the soldiers called out into his mic.

"Pinkamena pressed a few buttons from inside her tank, "Crawler to Fire Team, engage."

XXXXX

Ghost walked into the mess hall where Luna and Night Wing had resumed their game, "report from Crawler one, eeeeverything under control." he said while leaning on the entrance way with his hands.

Luna flipped a card down, "what about any resistance?"

"ineffectual, three ponies going in to clear them out, told the rest to hold back." Ghost responded with a shrug.

Luna sighed, "sounds right thats... three against fifty."

Ghost frowned.

"you can tell those new ones have no combat experience, the old ones, the veterans, they would have called for support." she picked up her glass of water and drank, "just in case." Luna finished.

"speaking of the old ones," Night Wing began, "why don't we have Twilight and her crew start putting up the monitoring unit."

Soldiers filed in line outside in a nearby corridor.

"AAATEEEENNHAUT!"

The soldiers all saluted.

"At ease."

the soldiers relaxed.

As Night Wing walked through, Twilight spoke up, "sir."

Night Wing stopped and faced her, "Sergent Twilight?"

"Are we to be issude weapons? Sir." she asked respectively.

"no Twilight, only soldiers get weapons." Night Wing responded with a coy smile.

Twilight bit back any smart ass remarks and merely gave a salute.

Night Wing chuckled as she stepped in close, "you don't even have to salute anymore Twilight.

Twilight's lips and eye twitched slightly, a mixture of humiliation, sadness, and anger.

XXXXX

Explosions sounded off from within Ponyville as its civilians cowered from the gunfire and invading soldiers only to be gunned down one after the other.

Lyra and Sapphire tipped over a table as a pony wielding a flamethrower stepped in and blasted the ray of ignited fluid at their improvised shield.

When the stream ended, Lyra and Sapphire stood up, unleashing a barrage of bullets that merely bounced off of the soldier's superior armor.

Another stream of fire shot forth in response and lit one of the gunponies ablaze, she screemed a blood chortling wail as her arms flailed around helplessly.

The soldier now aimed his sights for the other ponies when the glass from above busted in and Dash landed ontop of him, a quick movement of her hand, and Dash slit the soldier's throat.

Dash stared around at the chaos before kneeling down to collect weapons, ammo, and supplies from the dead soldier.

Sapphire peeked around the corner of the room she'd fled into to see the dead soldier bleeding down on the ground.

"...y...ya need any help partner?" she asked meekly.

Dash finish sliding a clip into a pistol as she slowly turned her head to face Sapphire, "..."

"...o-ok..."

XXXXX

"Twilight and team, deploying monitoring unit." Twilight called out as her team brought out a large container onto the planet's surface.

The team set up a large satilite whil others began opening the container.

XXXXX

A loud high pitch wail filled the caves as more bloodshed spread throughout Ponyville.

"come on! up the staisrs!" Fluttershy cried as she ushered the foals up a spiral stone stairwell.

A soldier stalked her way behind the mare and lifted up her flamethrower, a stream of fire sprung forth through the area.

Fluttershy jumped forward at the apex of the stairwell.

Foals panicked as a stanied glass window was kicked in at the top and a pony hopped in.

The soldier rounded the corner of the room atop the stairs as the foals came into view, along with Fluttershy, and then Dash wielding an R.P.G.

The missile exploded on the soldier's chest who screemed as she flew out a window connected to another room.

Dash turned to see the last soldier walking through a corridor with a chain gun, he fired up at the second floor, the bullets tore through everything as foals screemed and hit the decks.

Suddenly the gunfire stopped as the chain gun jammed, the soldier looked down in panic.

A section of the upper floor fell through and Dash with it, she lifted up the R.P.G. and fired a rocket at a huge airplane's propeller, the blades launched off whilst spinning and impailed the soldier through the chest.

"come in unit 703... Unit 703 do you copy?" Pinkamena called through the mic.

Dash picked the mic up and held it to her throat, from their, she growled into the mic.

XXXXX

"A growl?" Celestia asked with anoyance, "she heard a _growl_?"

"she didn't actually use the word but she said she heard a throat noise, I asked her to imatate it and it sounded... like a growl to me..." Ghost replied with a helpless shake of her head.

Celestia 'ahemed' while loosening her colar, "we're... obviously up against a significant military presence here..."

Ghost mulled it over, "well, let's send in the rest of the soldiers."

"absoloutely not!" Celestia cried, "those bastards are just wating for us in there..." she said as her eyes scaned around randomly infront of her, "no... we won't fall for an ambush.

At this, Luna stepped forward, "My daddy always said," Celestia silently groaned while rolling her eyes, "when you want to insert a nail into a piece of wood, don't try to dance around it or do aything glamorous, just hit the damn thing with a hammer until the son of a bitch is in."

Celestia ran a hand along her face, "and just what does that crap mean in english, Captain?" she asked chidingly.

"pull you're soldiers out, then load them up with heavy artilery then when night falls, you go back in with mortars, rockets, and gats, everything we got; from a _safe_ distance." Luna began.

Celestia ran this through her head.

"it ain't fancy, but it sure as hell will take care of your significant military military presence." she finished.

"alright do it, withdraw the soldiers."

XXXXX

Survivors waded through dead bodies within Ponyville, sifting through the wreckage. Lyra and Sapphire draged a few dead bodies out.

Scootaloo looked around at the death and chaos, she saw her mother bandaging up a few wounded and various ponies attempting to salvage what little there was to make use of.

After a while, she heard strange noises coming from the back room, going to investigate, she found the familiar sight of Dash, but here Dash was loading clips into various weapons that she had extracted from the fallen soldiers.

Dash looked up to face the filly.

Fluttershy entered into the room, "hey..." she looked around at the various weapons strewn about the place.

"... they killed him didn't they...?" she asked quietly.

Dash looked into Fluttershy's eyes... then to Scootaloo's.

Fluttershy's own eyes brimmed with tears, Big Mac... gone...

Dash opened a small disk-like container and began running a black paste accross her neck and face drawing diagonal camo lines.

"...how do you know they'll be back?" Flutterhsy adked.

"because they're soldiers Sir." Dash replied, "like me." she sheathed a combat knife and slid the clips into her pistols.

"why are they doing this?" Flutterhsy asked fretfully.

"Orders Sir, it's their duty." Dash replied simply.

"d... do you know how many there'll be?" Fluttershy asked.

"seventeen more Sir." Dash replied.

"you can't... fight seventeen more of them! Y..you have to organize... we... we're not cowards, we'll..." Fluttershy stammered.

"you.. we... we'll fight."

"no." Dash replied as she slung multiple rifles of varying models over her shoulder.

"w...why not?" Fluttershy objected.

Dash stared at her, "... Soldiers deserve soldiers Sir.".

"but... one soldier... against seventeen? What are you gonna do?".

Dash stood up and cocked a combat shotgun, "I'm going to kill them all Sir."

Dash left the room and walked passed the blazing fires, suited up with weapons strapped to her body with harnesses and belts.

Sapphire saw Dash pass through with dark cold eyes, she saw not a mare, but a true warrior, a soldier, a dog of war.

XXXXX

"Crawlers 1 and 2, commence bombardnet." HQ called in once night feel.

Tanks rolled in through the desert area but they didn't get far when gun fire suddenly rained on the tanks and took out a few soldiers standing on the edges of the tank along with the lights of the vehical.

"we are red, we are red!" called the driver of one of the tanks.

Pinkamena turned to the mic, "Crawler 2 to Crawler 1 report."

"Crawler 1 to Crawler 2 we are spoting sniper activity."

Ghost was sitting by from inside the drop ship on a phone connected to all radios, "Crawlers split up, Crawler 1, locate and neutralize the sniper. Crawler 2, procede to target."

Pinkamena nodded from inside the tank, "Roger, Crawler 2 proceeding to target."

The first tank fired off with its turret while the second tank veered off course and parked inside the make-shift graveyard.

The tank opened as two soldiers exited, "Crawler 1 deploying ground forces." A couple green flares were fired into the air.

The two soldiers stalked through the grave whilst deathly silent and were soon joined by a third soldier.

The ponies searched around the area, one of them stood over a cliff and over looked a pit full of green snakes, his search light surveyed the are when a hand reached up, grabbed the front of his rifle, and pulled him down into the pit.

A screem sounded out as the serpants assulted him.

Screems rang through the mics of the other shoulders, they gulped and cautiously looked around.

In another section, three more soldiers waded through waist high pool of water, one of them launched off another flare.

A soldier broke off from the group as she breathed heavilly, no other sound then the water moving around her.

A sudden noise made her turn left just as a flare illuminated Dash standing flat against the wall to her right.

As soon as the soldier did turn to her right, a knife was thrust right into her eye, she fell back into the water.

The sudden splash gained the attention of the other two soldiers who began searching the are, they found nothing but just to be safe, one with a flamethrower ignited the surface of the water.

Moments passed.

Another soldier far off walked through the grave yard, wary of every little shadow, the tank illuminating the area with a light.

The soldier in the grave whipped around at the tinest sounds...

"all units, report."

"438, negative."

"515, negative."

"523, negative." Just as the two ponies in the water responded, Das rose out of the water with a chain gun, the bullets ripped through the soldier's armor, their bodies jolted and spasmed from the bombardment until atlast they fell into the water, dead.

"438, engage! 519, close in, 515 stand by!"

Soldiers crowded around the pool area and entered battle positions.

Unit 515 atop a hill of rubbish suddenly heard gunfire, just as the two ponies turned, bullets tore through their bodies and they fell screeming to their deaths.

"SNIPER AT 12 O' CLOCK!"

Ponies rushed in, "sniper located!" one of the squad leaders signaled the other ponies to move up, several of them fell as they closed in on the firing guns, they returned with their own gunfire but no matter what, more and more bullets jsut kept hailing on them.

At last after losing several ponies, the remanants of two squads made it up to the sniper... Only to find that it was a dead corpse strung up on a sieries of wires with two SMGs attatched to his hands.

"get back!"

"retreat!"

"get back!"

Just as the ponies bagan fleeing, Dash from her hidden vantage point, pulled out a trigger and squeezed the button.

An explosion sounded off and took multiple soldiers with it.

Dash dropped the trigger and sifted through her belt.

The surviviing soldiers panted in horror as they searched desperately for their attackers, there simply _had_ to be an entire squadrant out here, right?

Dash hooked a safety line around her waste as she checked a wrist watch that she'd picked up from one of the dead soldiers; after securing herself to a large metal frame of nearby wreckage, she stared out at the soldiers who had no idea what was coming.

A billowing noise began singing throughout the area as the wind picked up.

The soldiers looked up as a giat cloud of dust came tumbling through with a gale of wind.

Pony's eyes widened as they turned tail and began runing in the other direction, crosses were ripped out of the ground and impailed several soldiers through their backs.

XXXXX

Celestia stared open mouthed at the ship conole.

"...I think we have to assume that the missing soldiers... are down." Ghost said grimly.

"should of made them smart instead of fast." Luna chided with a cheeky smile.

Celestia rubbed a hand along her face.

XXXXX

"squad 1 do you copy? Squad 2 do you copy? Squad 3 do. you. copy?!"

Over on the other side of the wasteland...

"this is 607 Crawler 2, we are nearing destination." Pinkamena stated.

"roger that 607"

Back in the graveyard...

"Crawler 1 to command, we have lost contact with all ground units. Still searching for the sniper..."

the tank pressed on in an eery silence, the gunner ontop looking left and right through the quiet graveyard.

...

Gun fire blazed in from above as Dash came down on a cable from a large wrechage arch and took out the gunner atop the tank.

Dash sood up after landing and pulled out two tech-9s and began blasting away the other two soldiers atop the tank.

The soldier within the tank moved to exit the tank but just as he did so, the hatch above opened, there stood Dash who then dropped a cluster of grenades on the soldier's face.

Dash slammed the hatch closed and then ran off the top of the tank, leaping into the air just as the vehical exploded.

Dash landed on the ground with a grunt, then looked up to see the silent wrecage of the tank.

XXXXX

In ponyville, Pinkamena's tank bombarded Ponyville with millile after missil as soldiers rained R.P.G.s along with gunfire after gunfire.

Foals cried as they hid in an underground department.

Pony's bodies were thrown about from the impact of the explosions, corpses soon began littering the city as the town itself started to fall apart.

Pinkamena flipped a few switches as she saw a tank on her computer drifting directly towards her own, "Crawler 2 to Crawler 1, come in."

"1."

"2 to 1, report to our port and comence firing."

"affirmative 2, report to port and comence firing."

Pinkamena's tank computer showed the tank still drifting directly towards her own.

"2 to 1, your in path of 12 o' clock, report to 9."

"... affirmative 2."

Pinakmena proceeded to fire at Ponyville until she looked down to see that the tank was still headed towards her own.

"...2 to 1, you are still on path towards 12 o'clock, report to 9."

"... affirmative."

The tank tore its way through the debris as it drew ever closer.

Pinkamena's computer began bleeping warnings, "Crawler 1, you are on a direct collision course with me."

From inside the second tank, Dash sat in the driver's seat, "... Affirmative 2."

Pinkamena looked outside her tank to see the other Crawler heading straight for her own, running over soldiers before crashing straight into her own vehical.

Pinkamena's head crashed into the nearby window.

The tanks pushed on to the side before they crashed through the garden and became rooted in the soil while parts combusted.

...

"Crawler 1 do you copy?... Crawler 1 do you copy?... Are any of you out there?... CAN ANY OF YOU DOGS HEAR ME?!" Ghost cried out through the mic.

Dash pushed the com. button for a response.

XXXXX

Inside of the drop ship, Ghost stood waiting on the phone when a voice rang out through the ship's speaker system, Dash's voice, "You're dogs... Are obsolete."

Ghost's blood ran cold, Celestia whipped around with wide eyes.

...

"no no I can't even get a hold of number 1, I've already tried!" Ghost and Night Wing argued with oneanother.

"this is bad, real bad..." Luna stated, "we don't even know what we're up against, how many are there?"

"we don't even have figures on enemy troups!"

"we couldn't even attempt to get figures! We're sitting ducks here, where are the old soldiers?!"

"We don't even have the weapons to _ arm_ the old soldiers!"

The entire time Celestia had been pacing back and forth, "We will NOT runaway, if that is what you are suggesting, I will have you court marshalled!"

"no, that's not what I'm saying at all!"

"don't panic, dooon't panic!"

"I am not PANICKING!"

XXXXX

A drop of water hit a leaf as an entire rain followed suit, as thunder struck, Pinkamena shot up with a gasp, blood covering her torso, she panted and looked around her perimeter, she dragged herself over to her back and pulled out a needle which she then injected into her her injured leg, three vials of a green liquid shot into them, next she pulled out a bottle with an assortment of pills, those she downed in a single gulp before throwing the bottle away.

Within a few seconds, her body spasmed and lurched, then she slowly rose with heavy breathes until she was on her hooves.

XXXXX

"Captain..." Celestia called out.

"yes Sir?"

"you must have some of those new model DX57s on board don't you?"

Luna paused, "... we carry fifteen."

"one's enough." Celestia replied as she turned around with a prim and proper stance.

"we take it out on a short fuze and we get outta here." she said plainly, "boom, we win."

XXXXX

Pinkamena tossed giant beams of metal in her way off to the side as she marched through the raining wasteland, fires still billowing from gass in the distance as they fought against the liquid.

AS she stalked her slow steady gait.

...

"now even though your scared, you still have have to be brave, even if you're really small..." Fluttershy comforted the foals huddled around her in the underground cavern, above them was the mettle grating of the first floor of the now ruined Ponyville.

Hoofsteps sent vibrating clops throughout the area.

Fluttershy carefully stepped around the staircase ans scoped the place out, trying her best to be stealthy.

She slowly ascended the stone steps when a hand suddenly clasped her shoulder, Fluttershy jumped as adrenalin shot through her body, she spun around to see Dash.

"we should go Sir."

XXXXX

The Drop ship opened as the old soldiers brought out the DX57 bomb.

XXXXX

Dash led Fluttershy and the foals out from the ruins of Ponyville into the rainy wasteland.

Dash stopped, her senses kicking up, she searched around for a presence that she knew was here.

"Take her." Dash said as she handed Fluttershy Scootaloo, "go back." Dash ordered.

Fluttershy looked forward to see a large muscular figure step out from the shodows, she gasped as Pinkamena walked into the light.

"GO BACK! GO BACK!" Fluttershy cried as she ushered the foals back into the hiding spot.

Pinkamena stared almost shocked into Dash's eyes.

Dash shook some of the rain out of her rainbow mane.

The two began circling eachother like the territorial wolves until they stopped several hooves from oneanother.

Pinkamena's eyes shifted up to the foals escaping through a higher level, then she looked down to Dash who shook her head as if to say, 'don't even think about it'.

Pinkamena drew a combat knife, swapped it to an assassin's grip(blade protruding from the pinkie side) and charged at Dash with a battle cry.

Dash countered by grasping a nearby mettle grating and using it as a shield, she then used its edges to bash Pinkamena's face until the pink mare yanked the grated and tossed both it and the knife to the side.

Pinkamena spun around with her right fist to slam it into Dash's face, but Das brought up her own right arm to block it.

Their muscles locked for a few short moment's before Pinkamena gave a yell and snapped her free hand forward which connected with Dash's face, then she followed up with a Thai Kick to the back of Dash's waist which sent her jolting to the side towards a small metal staircase.

Dash turned around and caught the sides of the railing just as Pinkamena rushed her, but Dash side steped and crashed her elbow into Pinkamena's back as she passed by.

Pinakmena used the momentum to swing around with her hooves raised and smashed them into Dash's face which send her stumbling backwards.

Pinkamena didn't give her any respite as she rushed forward and gave a snap kick, Dash blocked it using her hands.

The kick came back up again but this time connected with Dash's head, sending her to the ground.

Dash wavered on her kneese as Pinkamena came up behind her, grabbed her by the mane, and slammed her head into a nearby metal post only to pull her back, pick her entire massive form up in the air, and toss her over agains a pile of metal sheets, then she ran forward and in the air with both hooves in the air in a double flying kick which connect squarly in Dash's chest.

The cyan back coughed up blood as she smacked into the metal, but the momentum carried up into a large electronic sign above her, the sign bent and came tumbling down like a chopped tree.

Dash hopped to the side while Pinkamena looked up just as the tip of the side with all of its overbearing weight crashed onto her skull, she stumbled and fell to her kneese but shook her head and stood back up.

Another sign came down behind Dash prompting her to dart forward and tackle Pinkamena from underneath.

They both slammed into the ground and rolled a bit while dazed before they stood back up.

Pinkamena's bloodied face met Dash's who raised her fists.

Pinkamena's face contorted in confusion, after all the punishment she'd brought to Dash's middle aged body, she was still ready to fight?

Dash rushed in and through a flurry of punches which Pinkamena blocked, parryed, and countered, only for her own strikes to be brushed aside and countered as well, their strikes meeting expertly timed blocks and knock aways.

At last, Dash got in a powerful palm strike up Pinkamen'as maw, immediately followed by another palm strike which sent Pinkamena's head backwards.

Dash threw a heavy overhand punch which Pinkamena side stepped, then countered with a strong elbow to Dash's back, sending her splashing face first into a pudle of mudy water.

Pinkamena roared as she grabbed the back of Dash's mane and yanked her out of the puddle, blood pooled down from Dash's mouth.

Pinkamena ran forward while dragin Dash with her until she released and sent Dash crashing into a wrecked heli window, her face got cut up and her body shook a bit from the shock as PInkamena ran up behind her.

Dash was turned around and then assulted with a powerful uppercut to her mouth, followed by a swing to her gut.

Pinkamena bombarded Dash with a backhanded punch of her left hand, then a hook of her right hand, then reversed the direction with her right hand back handing and her left hand hooking.

Dash slunked to the ground, barely able to stand.

But still, she brought a hand up to the top of the heli door and draged herself to her feet before standing woozilly before Pinkamena who's triumphant smile dissappeared.

Dash's eyes caught sight of a garden sickle on the ground; Pinkamena's eyes moved down to also see the potential weapon in the mud.

The mares looked at one another.

Pinkamena twisted down and snatched the sickle while Dash, having fooled her opponant, reached up and grabbed the helicopter blade.

As Pinkamena stood back up, the blade of the chopper tore through her chest, she stammered backward while dropping the sickle; her stomach was sliced clean open, a bit of her intestines shown just short of spilling out.

Pinkamena lookd up at Dash with horrified eyes.

Dash walked forward and with a huge haymaker arch, swung her fist around into Pinkamena's jaw, the pink mare backed up shakilly with a grunt.

Dash's left hand came up for a second blow but Pinkamena recovered and latched ehr hand up onto Dash's face and begun squeezing on her skull with gritted teeth.

Dash's left hand came up and grabbed Pinkamena's forearm while her right hand uppercutted Pinkamena's lacerated stomach causing the mare grunt in pain.

Dash delivered another powerful blow to Pinkamena's intestines, this one causing her to screem in pain.

With her opponant distracted, Dash grabbed Pinakmean's wrists and elbow and with a quick motion, broke her arm.

Pinkamena squeeled in pain as Dash's face shook with adrenalin.

Dash released Pinkamean's broken arm and with both hands clasped together in a double fist, unleashed a hammering blow accross Pinkamena's face which sent her flying onto her stomach in a muddy pool of water.

Dash exaustedly stood over Pinkamena's prone form as the pink mare struggled to get back up, Dash straddled her back and put her right hand on the mare's head, yanked it back, and brought her left arm around her neck in a rear naked choke but with her right hand on the back of Pinkamena's neck.

Pinkamena's head shook violently while gritting her teeth and letting out a growl, Dash' clamed her bicept against the mare's arteries as hard as she could, her own body shaking with adrenalin and exaustion setting in; then, with a a roar, she cranked her curled arm to the left and her right hand to the right.

CRUNCH.

Pinkamena went completely limp.

Dash sat there for a few seconds with the thunder clashing in the background as she held Pinkamena; she gently set the mare's dead corpse down in the mudy puddle as the rain continued to pour.

XXXXX

Twilight's unit finished setting up the bomb as they spotted somepony coming through from nearby.

Twilight's flashlight moved to shine upon a series of foals along with a yellow coated mare and... Dash.

Twilight looked at Dash in disbelief for several moments.

Dash gave her a chin up gesture as if to say, 'yo...'

Twilight brought her hand up in a slaute, as did the other ponies in her squad.

Dash saluted them back.

XXXXX

"right, horrizantal." Luna spoke as she flipped a few switches on the drop ship's system.

"right, horrizantal, roger." Ghost replied.

"what's wrong Captain? Let's go!" Celestia commanded.

Luna turned her head, "we give Twilight and her soldiers seven more minutes."

"I said prepare for take off." Celestia re-ordered.

"and abandon them?" Luna quiped, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that... we-" "I am the superior officer here, it's my mission, my responsibilit, my call, and I say go." Celestia cut in.

Luna turned around from her seat, "I am _not_ goint to abandon those ponies-" "I won't have anymore of your pompus bullshit do you understand me? this is a direct order is that clear? Take off. Now." Celestia once again cut in.

"oh hohohooo..." Luna cracked her neck as she unlocked the seat buckles and stood up to walk over to Celestia who turned to leave, "don't you walk away from me you sniviling west point piece of sh-"

BANG!

Luna lurched, a bulled hole clear in her chest.

Celestia stood there holding her revolver.

Luna fell to her knees, then fell over onto her stomach with blood pooling out of her mouth with her eyes wide open as her heart gave out.

"... Take the helm Night Wing... COME ON, ON THE DOUBLE!" Celestia ordered.

Night Wing shakilly moved from her seat up to the head driver's roster.

"bring up the lower half Ghost... Get the power thrusting on." Celestia ordered.

Night Wing's ears twitched, "what was that?"

"what was what?"

The sound of clopping boot covered hooves filled the ship, the sound of a marching line of soldiers infact..."

XXXXX

"what the hell do you think you're doing?! let go of me!"

Celestia and the two Lt. cried as soldiers dragged them out of the cockpit.

Their complaints stopped however when they were brought infront of the transporter door, which opened to reveal Dash.

Celestia froze, "...you..." her face shook, she cowered as Dash walked right up infront of her.

...

A trickling sound filled the air, ponies looked down to see urine dripping down Celestia's pants onto the floor.

Celestia looked up at Dash "...p-please..."

Dash nodded to the soldiers who dragged the commanders to the ship's exit, "NO PLEASE!"

Celestia, Ghost, and Night Wing were all tossed out onto the planet's surface as the exit door closed.

"NO! NO! NO!" the ponies cried as the ship took off into the sky being piloted by Dash and Twilight.

The DX57's prongs jutted out into the air as the commanders rounded about to it. "oh my God, it's going to deteniate!"

"fourteen seconds, HURRY!"

Night Wing pinickedly pushed the buttons until she came to the last two didgets of the code, "I CAN'T REMEMBER IF ITS 6 7 OR 7 6!"

"oh get out of here!" Celestia shoved Night Wing aside, "NO! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

Celesita pressed 7 6 and then enter.

The bomb clicked, then went silent.

"There, see?!" Celestia yelled chidingly.

BEEP!

The three ponies snapped their gazes back to the bomb.

A huge flash of light filled the sky as the bomb incinerated everything on the surface.

The drop ship skyrocketed as fast as its engines could take it as the planet exploted from behind them, turbulence shook the ship as it waded its way through the debris.

Once they were clear, Twilight and Dash looked at one another, Dash gave Twilight a nod.

XXXXX

Fluttershy finished setting the foals up on the beds and binding the limbs of those injured.

Scootaloo wandered teh halls until she found the cockpit filled with soldiers.

Dash plotted a course for the Trinity Moons, "there."

Twilight gave a salute, "aye, aye, Captain, setting a course for the Trinity Moons.

Dash turned to look at Scootaloo who stared back for a few moments before reaching out her small arms.

Dash stood in front of her hesitantly for a moment; then she knelt down and embraced Scootaloo and lifted her up and held her against her torso with one arm.

Twilight gave a confuzed look, wo which Dash shruged.

The soldiers paused before shrugging themselves and returning to their work.

Dash stood infront of one of the windows while facing a beautiful spiral galaxy outside in space and pointed towards it for Scootaloo to look.

And in the slight reflection of that glass, Dash saw in her relfection not a soldier, not a dog of war, but a mare. An equine being.

A Pony.

THE END.


End file.
